Unilever has concluded its seemingly interminable global media review and, which won’t surprise anyone, it’s much as you were.
WPP’s Mindshare has retained the bulk of the business: US and Europe, in the latter it’s added central and eastern Europe, formerly held by Omnicom’s PHD.
PHD has won Australia, held on to China plus added some search business.
All very boring but Unilever is one of the biggest advertisers in the world, spending about £6bn. So both WPP/Mindshare and Omnicom/PHD will be happy with a score draw.
Unilever commenced its media review before the current farrago about undisclosed media rebates in the US and other markets blew up. WPP insiders tell me they think WPP and Omnicom are pretty clean on this (WPP admits when it trades on its own account as it does, sometimes, at Xaxis and OOH company Tenth Avenue).
Some of the others, they infer, are not.
Well who knows? But we’ll let you know if we find out.
